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Goals–announce or not?

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NaNoWriMo_Crest“Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh”

– David Milch

Despite this fundamental truth, I’ve decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year. For those who aren’t familiar, here’s the description from the www.nanowrimo.org “About” page:

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing.

On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.

Studies have shown that announcing goals or resolutions isn’t always a good idea. Apparently, some people get warm fuzzies from just from announcing the goal, and that this becomes a substitute for actually doing the work.

There are those who sign up for NaNoWriMo and never post a word count.

However, the articles I read also say that if one treats the announcement of a goal as a commitment rather than an achievement in itself, the increased accountability can help. Here are links if you’d like to read more: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/psysociety/should-you-tell-facebook-about-your-resolutions/ and http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/announcing-plans-may-kill-motivation-productivity/

What these articles don’t address is a factor that I think is very important: how people in your circle react to your announcement. Part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is the generally supportive environment on the website and the message boards.

On the other hand, announcing that you’re planning to write your first book can backfire if clueless or negative people in your life will chivvy you about when your first bestseller is going to come out. The same thing can happen with setting goals of any sort—it’s good to share them with people who will be supportive and also won’t treat you as a failure if you don’t reach your goal.

In my case, I’m not worried about the support team issue. It’s been about 15 years since I started writing and by now I know who’s got my back. The others just don’t matter any more. I do NaNoWriMo because it’s fun and suits my writing process.

NaNoWriMo_ProgressSeveral times in the past I’ve made it past the 50,000 mark. This time, my personal goal is just to get back into the groove of writing again and continue to make progress on the novella I started during my recent writer’s retreat. I’m managing about half an hour to an hour every day and the progress is very slow but steady. I certainly won’t “win” in the sense of achieving 50,000 words, but if all goes well, I may finish the rough draft of the novella. With the original 6,000 words, I am about one third to one half done!

How about you? Do you like announcing goals and do you find it helps? Do you enjoy tracking progress and how?

Elena

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NJRW Conference, NaNoWriMo and Histromnet

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Sorry for the alphabet soup in the title!

Diane already talked about the New Jersey Romance Writers conference, where she, Gail and I were fortunate enough to hang out together and celebrate Diane’s finaling in the Golden Leaf with A Marriage of Notoriety. I enjoyed the published authors’ retreat (they serve wine and chocolate pretzels), workshops on the business and craft of writing, and just being with other Regency authors (there are none in my local writing circle). Here are pics of Gail and me at the booksigning.

2014NJRWGail2014NJRWElena

Gail and I also spent some time on Saturday night brainstorming individual story ideas. I’ll leave it to Gail to talk about hers when she’s ready. All I’ll say is the beginning parts she read to me were delightful! As for me, I’m feeling more ready to go ahead and write prequel and sequel novellas to Lady Em’s Indiscretion.

nanowrimoIn fact, I think I’m going to join others in doing the National Novel Writing Month challenge. For anyone who’s unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, the idea is to draft 50,000 words of a new novel within the month of November.

There are naysayers who say it’s impossible to write 50,000 of publishable, readable fiction in one month. Actually, I know people who can do that (not me!) but for most writers, that is true. I’m sure loads of dreck is produced during NaNoWriMo. Probably some of it will make its way, unedited, into Kindle Direct Publishing but that’s no big deal, really. Others, like me, see the challenge as a fun way to generate ideas. We’re very aware that more time will be spent afterwards to rework and polish our ideas into readable fiction.

In years that I’m busy editing in the fall, I don’t do NaNoWriMo. But when it fits where I’m at in the writing–as it does this year–I join in. I admit, I love watching the progress meter rise! So wish me luck and anyone else doing the challenge, feel free to add me as a “Writing Buddy”. My NaNoWriMo ID is Elena Greene, with just a space in the middle.

Finally, something for all the historical romance lovers out there who would like to spread the word about this wonderful genre. A group of authors have created the Historical Romance Network. One project has been the creation of a video celebrating the variety of historical romance. Check it out here.

You’re all also invited to join the Fall Back in Time Facebook event. On November 1st, post a selfie taken while holding a historical romance. What a great way to celebrate historical romance (and an extra hour of sleep). 🙂

fallbackintime
Elena

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Happy NaNoWriMo!

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For anyone who’s not familiar, NaNoWriMo, often abbreviated to NaNo, stands for National Novel Writing Month. According to the organization’s website, “National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.”

The last time I participated was in 2007 but I didn’t make it to 50,000. The last time I “won” was in 2006. Each time I’ve participated, I’ve had a blast and gotten a lot done. There’s something about watching the progress graph climb that helps to motivate me.

I’ve heard people criticize NaNo for a number of reasons. It is true that a lot of people don’t get anywhere close to the 50,000 word mark. Personally, I think it’s great that people who talk about wanting to write a book someday actually give it a try. If they learn that writing isn’t really their thing, that’s fine. They can go on to other endeavors. If they learn to respect the hard work that authors put into writing, that’s a good thing too.

The other complaint I’ve heard is that NaNo produces a lot of dreck. True, but I still say no problem. For writers like me, it’s a good way to start a rough draft, to get to know my characters and get a clearer idea of their journey. I wouldn’t think of inflicting my rough drafts on my critique partners, let alone the reading public. A lot of rewriting and editing happen before I put anything out there.

Will some participants go ahead and self-publish their not-ready or even may-never-be-ready drafts? Probably. No big deal. It seems to me that the search algorithms at online bookstores won’t put those titles near the top of the list and bury more carefully written and edited books.

Anyway, I wish everyone a successful and fun NaNo.  I’m not participating this year because I’m on the 4th draft of the balloonist story and need to focus on that. However, I’m setting myself the personal challenge of having this draft ready for critique by the end of the month. If others can write 50,000 words of rough draft in this time, maybe I can manage 15-20,000 of somewhat more polished work. Here’s my Storytoolz progress bar. Wish me luck!

Click to view daily statistics

What challenges have you set yourself recently?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene
www.twitter.com/ElenaGreene7

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It’s not really about the 50,000 words

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I don’t participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, often abbreviated to NaNo) every year. For two years, dealing with my husband’s stroke has made writing impossible. At other times, like this year, I’ve been in editing mode, which is a NaNo no-no. The goal is 50,000 words of a new novel.

But I’ve done NaNo three times, “won” twice by hitting the 50,000 wordcount mark, but had a blast each time.

I have heard detractors of NaNo say that it’s a waste of time, that participants produce 50,000 words of garbage that are promptly forgotten, etc… What I say is it’s great for people who always said they wanted to write a novel to give it a try. If nothing else, they learn something about the work of writing and themselves. But it can also be a boon to serious aspiring writers.

If you are the sort of writer who strives to get every chapter right before moving on to the next–and I know several successful, published authors who work this way–NaNo is probably not for you. Unless you have a lot of time and are a fast writer, you may not be able to write as cleanly as you like and still reach the 50,000 word goal.

But if you are like me and many other writers, NaNo is the opportunity to get in a good chunk of first draft. IMHO it’s not about writing 50,000 words that can be submitted to an agent or publisher; it’s about generating ideas and learning about one’s characters.

I find the wordcount goal helps me to focus on that, by ignoring things I can fix later: awkward sentences, background research that doesn’t affect the plot, bits of dialogue that don’t feel period, etc… Although sometimes nuggets of “keeper” prose sneak in, they are just a bonus. What matters is coming out with a lot of new ideas I can use in writing the next draft.

Some people don’t have as good an experience with NaNo as they’d hoped. I’ve heard them complain that they started generating pages of blather just to reach their daily wordcount goals. My advice to anyone this happens to is to stop. You need to forget the wordcount at that point, because you may be bogging down on something important. It’s likely you’ve lost touch with your characters.

It’s time to back away, take a walk, have a cup of tea, brainstorm with a friend, do a character interview or a Goal/Motivation/Conflict chart as in Deb Dixon’s book. Anything that will get energy back into the story. If you solve it, you may be behind on your pagecount but you’ll be closer to the real goal of NaNo. IMHO a lesser wordcount and a lot of good ideas are worth more than a winner’s certificate and 50,000 words of a story you’ve lost interest in.

But you also may find that your enthusiasm for the story will rebound and you may end up with the certificate too.

So that’s my tuppence on NaNoWriMo. Anyone heading into it, good luck and have fun!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com
www.facebook.com/ElenaGreene

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A Slow NaNoWriMo

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For the past two years, I have been joining in the fun of National Novel Writing Month, a “fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” (Accompanying comic by Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl).

Both times I took the challenge, I completed just over 50,000 words under the wire. This year, I won’t make it. But I’m not overly upset and here’s why.

I’m trying a different process. Whereas in past years, I used NaNoWriMo as the opportunity to brainstorm new story ideas, this time I’m working from a very detailed outline. As a result, the writing is going more slowly but the resulting scenes are much more mature. So even though my progress meter looks pathetic, I’m not giving up, just revising my end goal to 25K. Once it’s all over I’ll look back at what I’ve achieved and decide whether this new process worked out or not.

In the meantime, I’m continuing to plug away. My only real problem is that the kids have inventoried the Halloween chocolate, so they will know if I sneak some!

Is anyone else here doing NaNoWriMo? How is it going? Have you ever participated in similar group challenges (writing or otherwise) and how did they go?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

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